Unmasked Lovers
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Catwoman gives her beloved Batman a treat on the most magickal night of the year, but will there be a trick too?  12th in Will's 13 Days of Halloween series for Jack.  Het.


Title: "Unmasked Lovers"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
For: My beloved Jack and our babies as a bit of a Halloween/Samhain/Anniversary present in this chaotic time of our lives  
Rating: R  
Summary: Catwoman gives her beloved Batman a treat on the most magickal night of the year, but will there be a trick too?  
Warnings: Het, Established Pairing  
Word Count (excluding heading): 1,851  
Date Written: 26 October, 2010  
Disclaimer: Bruce "Batman" Wayne, Selina "Catwoman" Kyle, all Bat-items, Gotham City, and any other recognizable characters/items mentioned within are & TM DC Comics, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

He knew before he even set foot upon the rooftop that the Commissioner was not there and had not been the one to call him this night. There was something different about tonight's calling, something not quite right and yet that sang of a hopeful encounter. Although the police were the only ones who were supposed to use his signal, he had also been called to this very rooftop through the same method many times before by ones who had never worn a badge. It had, on occasion, been a trick to lure him into a trap, but often, too, it had been a signal from the one woman who he would always love more than any one else but whom he also could never have as his own.

Sometimes Bruce thought about hanging up his Batman costume, and though the loss that made him think about retiring was sometimes completely unrelated to his love, most of the time it was because of this one wonderful woman who refused to walk the straight line. He had even gotten her to try to be on his side of the law a few times, but she always went back across the line and, he knew, she always would. She could never fight the good fight for long for she lived by a different set of morals, by her own laws. She would never understand that, in order to truly be a force of good, the hero, or heroine as the case may be, could never stoop to the same lows as the villain, and whereas he had tried to explain the matter to her many times, Bruce knew that she would never understand and could never live the way he did. It just wasn't in her furry nature.

A wry grin twisted the Batman's lips. Had he just cracked a joke? If only the children could have heard him! No matter his sidekick at the time, whether it be any of the Robins whom he had loved, Batgirl, or even some fill-in kid, they all always thought that he was without a single humor bone in his body, and indeed they were, for the most part, right. Only she could bring out the lighter side of the Bat. Only she could lift his dark thoughts and shine hope again into his world that was always growing darker without her presence shining like a beacon of hope inside of it.

He wondered where she'd been this time. He'd not seen her in months and knew that she'd undoubtedly been working on some case to help some poor animal souls somewhere. She was every bit as much devoted to her cause of protecting animals, and especially her beloved cats, as he was to saving mankind, and that was yet another thing that continued to drive them apart. Bruce loved animals - she had taught him that love over the years -, but he could never stand to the side and let her do to the hunters of the world what she longed to do to them. It wasn't that they didn't deserve it, he reflected. It was simply that, as wrong as their doings were, they were still within the law, and besides, where his love wanted to kill them, he could never commit a crime or stand idly by and let one be committed.

He hung his head as he touched down upon the roof of the police headquarters. She was not the one who stood in their way. As much as he hated to admit it, even in silence to himself, he knew the truth. He was the one who continued to force their inevitable separations, but he could not change himself no more than she could change herself.

His keen eyes flitted around his surroundings as he landed, and a pout pulled at the straight line of his mouth. The place appeared deserted, completely empty save for the Batsignal and a few chairs pushed against one wall. Had he been wrong? He stepped forward, and a gentle wind rustled his cape.

A few more steps carried him pass the brightest edges of the light, and he was able to spy a few more things upon the roof. Looking closer, he realized that they were pumpkins. His blue eyes widened. Although they were carved, they were not ordinary jack-o-lanterns. Indeed they were not even grinning. He picked up the nearest one to make a closer inspection and smiled.

She had definitely been here for he would recognize the marks of her deadly (but wonderful on his back when they were not fighting) claws anywhere! "Selina . . . " he murmured, inspecting the carving of a bat with pride. He sat the first pumpkin down and picked up the second. His grin grew as he recognized the cat carved into its orange surface.

The next pumpkin almost caused his mask of the Batman to fall away as laughter nearly escaped him. The cat was now upon the bat's trail! She had truly outdone herself on these pumpkins, he thought, marveling at the artwork, as he picked up one after another. Each pumpkin wore a new scene depicting the cat's chasing and eventual catching of the bat until, upon the very last pumpkin, the one set directly before the signal itself, where the cat had caught the bat, she licked him!

He could stand it no longer. Thoroughly delighted in his lady love's artwork, Bruce threw his head back and laughed deeply until the sound of a rumbling purr came to his ears. He looked around but did not yet see her.

"I'm glad you like it," Catwoman purred as she stepped into the light.

"This is my treat," he announced, grinning and looking warily at her beauty. "Do I get a trick too?"

He stood his ground as she snapped her whip out and around his shoulders. It struck him with surprising gentility for the blow. The knowledge of what was to come deepened the curve of his soft and supple lips a split second before the whip tightened around him and she began to pull him to her. He grinned at her, feeling uncharacteristically impish, and his following wink was the only warning she received before he grasped the whip, snatched it away from her control, and yanked both whip and woman into his waiting arms.

Catwoman gasped in surprise, but her gasp transformed just as swiftly into a deep and husky purr as he had acted to bring her to the hold of his arms where she belonged. She pressed her body against his, and they felt every inch of each other's burning, muscular bodies through their tight, leather costumes. "Feeling batty tonight, lover?" Catwoman breathed as she leaned up and positioned her lips a mere breath from his. Her smile, in which both love and mischief mingled, grew as she admitted, "Me too." Without giving him a chance to respond, she closed the tiny distance remaining between them as she seductively dragged her tongue across his heated lips.

His reaction was immediate, and her purr deepened as she felt the rising, stiff alert of his most private Batarang against her own hot core. She rubbed herself against him as she offered, "You've always been the one to provide the trick, Batsy. It's up to you. This is a night full of magic and possibilities intended for the wearing of masks and costumes. Do you want all the treats I have to offer you, or must you purrsist in our love being a trick?"

Batman frowned. "I . . . wouldn't call it a trick . . . " he said, fumbling for the right words. He knew exactly what she was hinting at with her teasing words, and he felt a different kind of heat, an embarrassed heat that rarely touched him, fanning him inside of his Batsuit. It was true. He was the one who stood between their being together, but he had no choice. He could no more change who he was than she could be a good girl.

And did he really want her to be a good girl? a small voice in the back of his mind argued. He loved her for all that she was, and if she ever dulled herself or forced herself to change to meet the conformities of other's opinions, she would not be the same strong, brave, and wonderful woman whom he loved so much that at times it even hurt. Hurt because they could not be together, he knew, and he was indeed guilty of forcing their relationship to be the trick she called it.

He blew out a breath of frustration, and she cupped his handsome face in her loving hands. "It doesn't always have to be that way."

"Catwoman," he spoke, placing his hands over her gloved hands and rubbing her soft, satiny flesh gently through the leather, "you know I can't . . . "

"I know," she agreed in a soft, breathy purr and nodded, "and I'm not asking you to do anything you can't, Bruce. I'm asking for one night only, this night, this night made for magick and possibilities, for the wearing of costumes and having spooktacular fun. Let the rest of the world run around in masks tonight, but not us. We don't have to wear masks between each other. There doesn't have to be anything between us save what already is."

"I know you can't change, no more than I can, and I'm not asking you to do so. I'm just asking you to love me, to let the world go by this one night and love me like you mean it." Her emerald eyes glistened behind her mask. "Like there's no tomorrow. Like this one night will last us forever, because it is forever for us." She searched his shining, baby blue orbs. "Can you do that?"

He took her left hand down from his face and gently drew her long glove off. Then he repeated the same maneuver with her right hand and stripped his own gauntlets off. Gazing into her eyes, he held her hands, and their fingers entwined. Though his head was nowhere near her breast and he knew that it was physically impossible, he could hear her heart beating fast and strong but also scared. He could hear it beating for his beat the same rhythm and was one with hers.

Letting go of her hands, he boldly unmasked himself first and then delicately drew her own mask off. "I always do," he told her in his deep, emotionally-etched voice, "and I always will. I love you, Selina and Catwoman, and nothing's ever going to change the way I feel for you even if we can't change ourselves!" Then, taking her beautiful face into his hands and burying his aching, searching fingers into her silken, raven locks, he kissed her long and deep. She purred her eternal love for him alone as she melted into him, their bodies becoming one as they were always meant to be underneath the bright Halloween moonlight.

**The End**


End file.
